Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Yes, chickens are in the very near future for the Taflans! The chicks will hopefully be ready this weekend and their box and heat lamp await them in the laundry room. You may be thinking we're crazy, or have a weird obsession with feathered friends, but we see it like this - when you have a little bit of land, and part of it is already fenced in, and you love the thought of having fresh eggs from an animal that initially costs $3 each... then who can resist having their own backyard flock? Not us! We think it's great that we have the opportunity to take care of God's creatures and enjoy what they produce here in our own backyard :)

I've thought for a while now that having chickens would be a neat, productive pet to have and when we began renting our little white house, I felt like the place was perfect. Will our landlord agree? We don't really know! Maybe fresh eggs will make her think like we do... In the meantime, before gathering our first egg, we have to keep the little chicks warm and inside until fully feathered (around 6 weeks) and then they probably won't lay an egg until mid to late summer. I'm not sure what our parrots will think having more birds inside, but we bet they'll imitate the chickens a little now and then. While the chicks are growing feathers, Matthew plans on building the chicken coop in the fenced in portion of our yard. He has it sketched out and we plan on cutting costs some by using wood found in our shed and my dad's shed. I'll post pictures whenever it gets completed.

Buff Orpington is our breed of choice and we hope to pick out some healthy little hens (fingers crossed that we don't get a rooster!). Right now 4 is the magic number and I've had the names picked out for them since this past fall. I'll share those later along with a picture of the chicks once they're home.

If I could (maybe one day?) I'd add a milk goat and dog to our miniature farm... although a dog is much more likely than a goat in Matthew's opinion. For now I'll be content with some chickens!